JAPAN – Seven & i Holdings, the Tokyo-based owner of the 7-Eleven chain, has received a buyout offer from Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT).

This move could potentially mark the largest foreign acquisition of a Japanese company to date.  The offer, which was disclosed on Monday, proposes that ACT, a multinational headquartered in Montreal, acquire all outstanding shares of Seven & i.

In response, Seven & i has established a special committee to evaluate the proposal and provide recommendations to its board.

The news spurred a significant 22% increase in Seven & i’s share price, raising its market valuation to 5.6 trillion yen (£29.6 billion).

ACT, which is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, operates over 16,700 stores and gas stations across 31 countries.

The company’s footprint includes 652 convenience stores and petrol stations in Canada and the acquisition of Circle K in the US in 2003, expanding its reach to over 24 countries globally.

Seven & i, which took ownership of 7-Eleven in 2005 through its major stakeholder Ito-Yokado, oversees more than 84,000 convenience stores in 19 countries.

The chain, known for its 7am to 11pm operating hours and iconic products like the Slurpee and Big Gulp, began in Texas in the 1920s and has become a global convenience store leader.

The proposed acquisition comes as Japan has recently relaxed regulations on foreign takeovers, making it more challenging for Japanese firms to block unsolicited offers.

This deal represents one of the first major takeover attempts under the new rules and could set a precedent for future foreign acquisitions in Japan.

ACT began with its convenience store brand in the province of Quebec more than 40 years ago and now has 652 convenience stores and petrol stations across Canada.

In 2003, it bought the US convenience store Circle K, which is now present in more than 24 countries worldwide.

It has recently been trying to boost its global presence with acquisitions and unsuccessfully tried to buy the French supermarket chain Carrefour in 2021 for €16.2bn (£13.7bn). It also bid for the US petrol station chain Speedway but was beaten to the acquisition by Seven & i.

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